SAN DIEGO – The Chargers have had as much success playing regular season football games in Pittsburgh as Germany has managed in regular world wars. That known, for them to finish on the short end in the city of the three rivers hardly makes for a denouement worthy of Agatha Christie.

So they lost. NFL teams lose. All but one in history hasn't. Continuously losing in Pittsburgh is a problem, but in this case, it was acne on the elephant in the room. It was the way they lost. It was humiliating. Disturbing.

“Absolutely embarrassing,” Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith confirmed Tuesday during the first of our annual quarterly report get-togethers. “Everything is wrong with it right now. I'm not the least bit happy in a lot of areas. I've seen us be tough and physical to soft and bewildered.”

Coach Norv Turner fumed when asked if his lads were manhandled. Norv, your team was Stooges-slapped defensively. He even went so far to say his defensive line didn't play all that poorly in Pittsburgh. Norv, by game's end, your guys were wringing out their uniforms after being blown into the Monongahela – or was it the Allegheny or Ohio? Maybe the soaking helped remove the tire tracks.

The Candy Man can sugar-coat things, but he can't blindfold the angry, watchful villagers. This was one pathetic voyage, and he was on the bridge.

The Steelers ran up 32 first downs, 497 total yards – 165 of those provided on the ground by JV tailback Rashard Mendenhall, who had been exiled to coach Mike Tomlin's personal Elba. The Chargers were aspirin for their Super Bowl hangover.

Going in, San Diego hadn't played the run worth a damn, but had sucked it up and improved when it mattered. It never mattered in Pittsburgh. And with defensive coordinator Ron Rivera content to fall back in that zone and allow quarterback Ben Roethlisberger – who is very good, by the way – to stand around and throw underneath all night without adjusting defied logic.

You think you have cover corners. Man-up and get after the quarterback. You're not beating a good QB that way (you're only going to get JaMarcus Russell twice a year). Even if losing is inevitable, show the other guys you've been shaving for a while.

The Chargers can't run block, can't stop the run, can't come close to applying enough quarterback pressure – from inside or outside – and will continue to have trouble defending the pass if the secondary is ordered to back off receivers as if their pockets are filled with Strontium 90.

This is not a physical football team – on either side of the ball.

Very few Chargers played well Sunday night, but the coaching staff gets a flat game ball. Steve Crosby, who runs special teams, seemed the only guy on the sidelines who knew what he was doing.

Turner may be an offensive wizard, but this was yet another game his guys started as if introduced just prior to kickoff, when one play, one stop, could have made a tremendous difference. Maybe he should come out in the two-minute and let it rip.